How can I make an Interface with Gap in thickness direction but not in the edges.

Diego CARO MARTIN

Hello,

I have a model in which two plane surfaces (formed by shells) will contact both in the surface and the edges. However, when I try to model a TYPE7 contact, I need the Gap to be dependent of the thickness (as in Igap=2) in that direction, but this leads to a Gap that would not be realistic in the edges, where the 'last' node is geometrically at the edge. I have tried TYPE11 Interface in that area to avoid this but the Igap is still at work and the parts contact 'before' they should.

To sum up, I would need the contact area to be the blue marked area in the picture.

PaulAltair

You can't get the behaviour you describe with the non linear penalty stiffness contacts (/TYPE7,11,19), if you need zero extension beyond the element edge you can use linear penalty contact /TYPE25 (depending on whether you are considering edge-edge contact or not it may also be necessary to set Igap0 = 1)